Ebone resistance fractures

The future of the Ebone/KPNQwest European networks hangs in the balance tonight as debate rages among the barricaded volunteers as to whether to pull the plug.

The workers appear to have split into warring factions, arguing over whether to accept a deal with company administrators.

The Belgium-based network is still lit up this evening, after the deadline for it to be switched off passed.

Voluntary staff, who barricaded themselves inside the Belgian operations centre eight days ago, had warned that the network would be shut down if a deal was not struck by 4.00pm UK time today.

When vnunet.com called the operations centre on Friday evening we were told that there was no information on the closure yet and that discussions were still in progress.

Arguments could be heard in the background, and a technician on the support desk told us that "people here are just shouting and screaming at each other".

He explained that there was some dispute over whether the network should be shut down. "I don't want it shut down, neither do others, but some do," he said. It is not clear how the stand-off will be resolved.

Forty workers have been offered a minimum two-week contract to keep the network up, and Reuters has reported that trustees of bankrupt KPNQwest have agreed to appoint an independent auditor to settle the debt dispute.